Exam question 3 · Birds: feathers, wings, eggs and flight

Ascertain the role of grit retained within the avian gizzard.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you · What happens: ascertain, retain · To what, where: role, grit

This is exam question 3 of lesson 33 «Birds: feathers, wings, eggs and flight» of the biology course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: the test at school.

The question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ascertain	ascertain	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 role	det
3	role	role	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Ascertain	obj
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 grit	case
5	grit	grit	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 role	nmod
6	retained	retain	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 grit	acl
7	within	within	ADP	_	10 gizzard	case
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	10 gizzard	det
9	avian	avian	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 gizzard	amod
10	gizzard	gizzard	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 retained	obl
11	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Ascertain	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	ascertain	imperative	you not said here	the role of grit					vn discover-84 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent role=Topic
2	retain	participle		grit not said here				within the avian gizzard	tree rules

One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

The neutralisation of stomach acid

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 neutralisation	det
2	neutralisation	neutralisation	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 acid	case
4	stomach	stomach	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 acid	compound
5	acid	acid	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 neutralisation	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	neutralise			stomach acid					nom neutralisation «process transitive»: of=patient

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The mechanical grinding of food

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 grinding	det
2	mechanical	mechanical	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 grinding	amod
3	grinding	grinding	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
4	of	of	ADP	_	5 food	case
5	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 grinding	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 3

The ballasting of the bird in flight

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 ballasting	det
2	ballasting	ballasting	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 bird	case
4	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	5 bird	det
5	bird	bird	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 ballasting	nmod
6	in	in	ADP	_	7 flight	case
7	flight	flight	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 bird	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 4

The production of eggshell material

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 production	det
2	production	production	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	5 material	case
4	eggshell	eggshell	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 material	compound
5	material	material	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 production	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	produce			eggshell material					nom production «act transitive»: of=patient

Text: the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (world/data/school/), as the course runner gave them to the student. Trees: Mova's own parse — the en model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/33-birds-feathers-wings-eggs-and-flight/e3/